Hood capping closure disk



April 1936. w. WRIGHT ET AL 2,036,737

' HOOD CAPPING CLOSURE DISK Filed May 25, 1932 Patented Apr 7, 1936 UNiTED STATES PATT' HOOD CAPPING CLOSURE HSK Wilbur L. Wright and L ee D. Pierce, Fulton, N. Y.,

5 Claims.

or less flexible sheet material approximately fiat dished disk that is preformed for registration when a plurality of such disks are nested and for registration with machine parts in bottle canping machinery and for registration with the heads of bottles preparatory to the folding of such disks to complete hood cap form thereon.

A further object of the invention is to produce a pre-formed approximately flat slightlydished hood capping disk of sheet paper like material or of other more or less flexible or resllient non-metallic material, of the self-securing or socalled plastic type by reason of a binder carried thereby or by reason of characteristics of the material of which the disk is composed, whereby the disk, or at least the .skirt forming portion thereof, is normally set at atmospheric or room temperatures or conditions and is capable of becoming temporarily moldable or tacky when subjected to certain conditions or treatment for quick application to and'molding or shaping to final self-securing hood cap form on the bottle head and of quickly setting in such form to secured condition on the bottle head, all with the end in view of producing such a disk in such pre-formed shape as to facilitate the operation of hood cap ping machinery in accurately applying such preformed disks to bottle heads and completing the hood capping operations on the bottle heads.

A further object of the-invention is to provide as an article of manufacture and sale, a hood capping disk of suitablemore or less resilient sheet material, that is more or less slightly dished from the flat plane form and centrally embossed.

for domed to centrally seat down on the annular top edge or lip of the bottle, as distinguished from a closure originally manufactured in and of complete hood cap form, with the ends in view of gaining space economy in packing and shipping, simplifying disk manufacture, maintaining registration of the disks during machine manipulation, assuring and maintaining bottle and disk registration and centering when the disks and of paper,

Ap ication May .25, 1932, Serial No. 613,534

bottle heads are brought together, and during travel of the bottles with the disks loosely seated thereon, and during shaping of the disks into hood caps and to secured form'on the bottle heads. 7

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features in structure and formation, as more fully and particularly explained and specified hereinafter.

Referring to the accompanyingdrawing form- 10 ing a part hereof: V

Fig. 1 isa side or edge elevation of a completed pre-formed disk in accordance with the instant invention, for ultimate completion to hood cap form on the bottle head.

Fig. 2 shows said disk in cross section.

Fig. 3 shows said disk in top plan.

Fig. 4 shows in side elevation a bottle head with the disk of Fig. 1, resting loosely and centered on the annular top lip of said head and covering the bottle mouth, preparatory to the machine operation of folding and shaping the disk to hood cap form secured on and enclosing the bottle head.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the bottle head with the finally formed hood cap in secured condition on and covering said head.

The disk shown as an example of an embodiment of the invention, is composed of a single more or less .flexible resilient sheet having inherent characteristics or an added binder, whereby the disk is rendered plastic or self-securing as a finally formed complete hood cap. This a disk is slightly dished and otherwise shaped to provide the slightly depressed radially-Wide annular skirt forming portion I, having longitu dinal or approximately radial pairs of outwardly diverging creases, bending or fold lines Ia, permanently pressed therein, and the permanent central upwardly embossed dome that is preferably imperforate and flat at the central top 2, joined to said depressed creased annular skirt forming portion I, by annular downwardly and outwardly curving or slightly downwardly flaring wall portion 2a. The wide annular skirt forming portion I, is in the example shown although the invention is not so limited, of radially corrugated or step-like formation, by reason of the partially formed tucks and creases or bend lines forcibly pressed therein in the method of manufacturing the disks, to initiate the bending of this skirt formation into the desired folds, gathers and/or tucks to take up the surplus skirt material when the skirt portion is folded and gathered downwardly and inwardly on the bottle head to complete long skirted hood cap form and then contracted to the bottle head and neck and pressed inwardly under the bottle head rim to flatten out and compress all of the surplus material tucks and gathers, to the final hood cap securing form and condition, as shown by the drawing illustration of an example of a bottle hood capped by the disk example illustrated.

The disk illustrated is by means of proper dies and pressure, pressed and/ or drawn from a plane flat circular disk of more or less resilient sheet paper or other non-metallic flexible and/ or resilient sheet material, suitable for hood capping purposes. The annular skirt forming portion I, is drawn or pressed downwardly from the plane of the flat circular blank, and the upwardly contracting circular central dome 2, is embossed upwardly from the plane of the flat circular blank, usually by separate steps or operations.

' The permanent upwardly embossed center dome has a top wall 2, of a diameter to close or cover the mouth of the bottle to be hood capped thereby and the annular top edge or lip of the bottle that surrounds said mouth, and the downwardly curving or flaring annularsurrounding upstanding or edge wall 20., of the dome is preformed to a predetermined internal diameter to receive and freely drop down around the annular cuter circumference of the mouth wall of the standard bottle mouth lip and extend down around the same the distance permitted by the vertical depth of the dome and thereby center the disk on the bottle head with the annular upright wall 2a, of the dome depending around the exterior rim of said head to' maintain the disk in horizontal position on the head while the bottle, carrying the horizontal disk loosely fitting its head, moves to the hood capping position at which a mechanical folding or molding head performs the operation of folding and gathering the outstanding horizontal skirt portion I, down to hood cap form on the bottle head and presses the same inwardly and flattens down the overlying folds or tucks and thus holds them until set to securing position on the bottle head.

The approximately flat but usually slightly downwardly directed or flaring annular preliminarily creased or partially or initially folded annular portion I, is of substantial radial width or diameter and projects outwardly substantially horizontally or transversely to the longitudinal or vertical axis of the domed center 2, 2a, of the disk. This annular portion I, plus the substantially vertical length of annular depending wall 2a, provides material of sufficient length to form the required long. depending enclosing and securing annular skirt of the hood cap that is finally completed, from the disk, on the bottle head.

The wide almost horizontal projecting annular portion I, of the disk is in the process of manufacture, preferably, permanently creased and radially bent, by forcing a flat circular sheet blank through dies to temporary complete flat top approximately cylindrical hood cap form with the surplus material of the annular skirt taken up by tucks or folds of triangular or upwardly converging form that are temporarily folded flat in the dies, without the application of the necessary force and pressure to permanently reduce and compress the sheet material and folds of the skirt to produce the skirt of permanent cylindrical or long form.

The sheet material is of such resiliency and under such tendency to return to its original flat form, the pressure applied not being sufflcient to wholly destroy such resiliency and tendency, that when the disk is released from such dies, the skirt portion springs back to slightly depressed or flaring form with, however, the fold or crease lines and the partially flattened out trucks or folds, permanently remaining, and resulting in the irregular formation of the annular portion I, designed to cause said portion I, when a bottle head having the disk 2, 2a, I, la, seated loosely thereon is forced upwardly into a closing or capping head, to fold down to encircling contracted elongated-skirt hood cap form naturally following the fold lines originally impressed in portion I, and in the completion of the tucks or folds originally initiated or partially formed in said portion I.

However, we do not wish to limit our invention to any particular initiated folding formation of annular portion I, nor to the particular formation shown.

In the manufacture of our disks,- from flat sheet blanks, the blanks, are, preferably,by asuitable die or pressing operation, for instance, such as hereinbefore described, reduced to a form having a. flat circular top or center and a creased annular skirt portion flaring downwardly from the plane of the flat blank or of the flat center.

Then, if not previously formed, the flat center and the annular surrounding radially narrow upper or base portion of said skirt are permanently domed by being embossed, drawn, or forced upwardly from the plane of the original flat blank, say for a distance of five sixteenths of an inch more or less, without intending to limit our invention to any such dimensions. This embossing operation is performed under heavy pressure and by the use of the necessary dies to produce the disk with a permanent dome, approximately such as hereinbefore described,'to exteriorly fit over and extend for a short distance down on the bottle head, and a portion of the radial width of the original radially-creased blank skirt is included in this dome, and the exterior or over all diameter of the flared flat center blank is thereby slightly decreased, and also the flare or taper of the skirt of the first dished blank, is somewhat flattened out, by the embossing or doming operation.

This embossing or doming operation can, if so desired, be performed by a cylindrical more or less high pressure reciprocatory embossing ram having a fiat working end face of approximately the diameter of the flat center 2.

A fixed circular female die cooperates with and receives this ram. This female die is of an in-' ternal diameter but slightly in excess of the diameter of the disk center 2, and said die can be provided with a flat bottom face to oppose the flat end face of the ram in gripping the center 2, of the dome of the disk.

When the ram is elevated from the female die, the flat center of the flaring blank is placed under the ram and centered over said female die, and the annular flaring skirt of the blank is clamped and flattened out horizontally by annular clamping means concentrically surrounding the ram and die while the ram descends on the center 2, of the blank and carries the same down through the female die and tightly against the bottom of the die that corresponds in form to the hot- I tom end face of the ram. This descending .action of the ram draws down to cylindrical form within the die and around the ram and compresses and smooths out the sheet material thereof, the

annular creased base portion of the previously formed flared skirt of the blank, to form the annular surrounding edge wall 2a, of the dome of the completed disk.

When the disk with its dome thus drawn or embossed, is ejected from the female die after withdrawal of the ram, and release from the annularclamping surfaces or members, the sheet material of the disk by reason of its natural resiliency and tendency to return to its original flat form, springs or returns to the form approximately as shown with the annular upstanding edge wall 2a, of the upwardly-projecting dome slightly flaring or enlarging downwardly and with the annular depressed skirt projecting outwardly almost horizontally and still irregular or somewhat stepped in form because of the initiated tucks or folds and permanently formed fold lines or creases.

We do not wish, however, to limit our invention to any particular method or method steps,

that may or may not be followed in the production of the article hereof.

While the disk of our invention is primarily intended for plastic or self securing hood capping, say, broadly, as generally outlined, for

instance, by the Wilbur L. Wright Patent No.

1,657,950, Jan. 31, 1928, and/ or Wright and Pierce Patents Nos. 1,857,073, 1,857,075, May 3, 1932, among others, yet we do not wish to limit all features of our invention to plastic or self securing hood capping, nor to the disk of our invention rendered plastic or self securing by an added binder. The disk of our invention can be composed of non-binder carrying, non-metallic fienible or somewhat resilient sheet material that by reason of its own peculiar composition and inherent characteristics renders the disks of this invention capable of successful use in plastic or self securing hood capping, by conditioning the disk and/or its skirt during the hood capping method, to render the same temporarily self securing and capable of quickly setting to fixed secured form and condition.

Where the disks of our invention, to be used for plastic hood capping, are composed of sheet paper material that has not been previously impregnated or otherwise supplied with a suitable binder in quantity to render the disks capable of use in plastic or self securing hood capping, we provide the disks throughout or merely the skirt portions thereof, with the required quantity of any suitable binder, by impregnation through application of the binder to the disks, while in a fused liquid condition. The fused binder is internally taken up by the paper and quickly sets and solidifies therein at atmospheric and/or room temperatures, so that the impregnated disks when shipped from the factory to the bottlers, are in a more or less hard stiff condition, for conditioning in the hood capping machinery to the temporarily soft or moldable condition in which the disks are dispensed onto the bottle heads and then molded to secured hood capping condition thereon.

We have discovered that material advantages and economies are attained, where the manufactured disk for hood capping purposes is maintained with minimum flare and length and consequently as nearly flat and of maximum over all diameter as is possible without forfeiting desirable ease and accuracy in folding or molding on the bottle head and proper registration of the disks when nested, when passing through capping machinery and in application to and transportation on the bottle, as well as when being molded or folded to the desired final hood cap form on the bottle. I

The disks are as remote from real hood can form as it is possible to make them, in that they are of maximum relatively large diameter for ultimate hood capping, are relatively fiat or of minimum axial or longitudinal length, with the skirt so flattened out as to be almost or approximately horizontal.

These substantially fiat disks can be conveyed and handled by machinery with accuracy, speed and economy, and can be quickly and accurately advanced and rotated when arranged edgewise accurately centered or caused to register by the nesting domes, and the machinery for handling and hood capping with said disks is materially simplified and rendered more certain and accurate in operation, by the substantially fiat large diameter disk form stiffened as they are by their domed central portions. I i

We do not wish to limit all featuresof our invention to the initial preforming of the radially wide substantially horizontal marginal portion i, to cause the surplus material therein to fold along predetermined lines when contracted to long-skirted longitudinal hood cap form, nor do we wish to strictly limit ourselves to the explanatory and illustrative'disclosure hereof.

What we claim is:--

l. A hood capping element formed of nonmetallic sheet material, having an elevated center to cover the bottle mouth and rest on the top surrounding lip thereof and an annular edge wall flaring down from said center to depend around said lip, and a slightly-dished, radially- Wide hood-cap-skirt-forming annular marginal portion projecting outwardly from said edge wall.

2. A hood capping element substantially circular in shape and formed of non-metallic sheet material, having a central interiorly-unobstructed, open-bottom upwardly-projecting dome to center the element on a bottle mouth covering said mouth and depending down around the annular lip thereof, and an approximately-flat,

; radially-wide surrounding annular margin projecting outwardly from the annular depending wall of said dome and forming a laterally-extending continuation thereof, said annular laterally-projecting margin being preformed for folding along predetermined lines when drawn downwardly to hood skirt form on the bottle head and pressed inwardly thereon.

3. A hood capping element formed of paper material, having an upstanding open-bottom dome with an elevated top wall, and a slightlydished annular unbroken margin surrounding the base of the annular depending side Wall of said dome and projecting outwardly and laterally therefrom, said margin having. preformed partial or initiated upwardly and downwardly deflected folds, said element being sufficiently stiff, flat and circular in form to permit rotation and advancement thereof by conveying machinery, and wiping thereof from capping machinery onto an advancing bottle head by the engagement of the bottle lip with the inner surface of the dome side wall, and for close nesting for packing and capping machine feeding, and for accurate registration in machinery for handling said element.

4. A. hood capping element formed of paper material carrying a binder for securing the iolds thereof when contracted downwardly on a hot tle head to hood cap form, said element haw ing an upstanding, open-bottom dome with an elevated top wall and an annular downwardly flaring side wall, and a widely-flaring annular margin surrounding and constituting an ontwardly and laterally-projecting continuation oi VVILBUR L. VVREGHT. LEE D. PIERCE. 

